The real issue behind copyright assignment (was Re: Licensing and copyright)

[George <jirka 5z com>]

On Thu, Feb 26, 2004 at 07:24:36PM +0100, Jean-Michel POURE wrote:
> We are not dicussing copyright here.
> Only liability of non-US residents in other cases than copyright.
> 
> If A (French citizen) gives B (software) to C (American foundation), then
> B is placed under US laws because it belongs to C.
> 
> This is interesting if D (anybody) tries to steal your software.
> But if B creates a problem in a hostpital and E (an american citizen) dies
> 
> then F (an american judge) may prossecute A directly.

G: you are on crack, no matter what court has jurisdiction over you.

George

PS: couldn't help myself.  I know you all hate me for posting to this thread
further, but it is my belief that perhaps where logic and argumentation
failed, it may just be that ad hominem will put a quick end to the
conversation.

PS2: Also I think we are not discussing the real issue here and that is: Can
we behead people that infringe on gdm2 copyright?  Can we put it on pay per
view?  Can the head collection basket (is that what such a device would be
called?) have the GNOME logo on it?  That is I'm asking if putting the GNOME
logo on the basket to which the infringer's head would fall in and make a
splashy noise would be permitted by the GNOME logo trademark guidelines.
Obviously this needs to go into the guidelines as it is an important and
possibly common occurance in the future.

I think the head collection basket needs to be bolted down, since the head
may be falling from some distance (at least knee high on all the beheading
devices I've seen) and if it would topple, the head could fall out, roll
around for a while and then E (in the above notation) would trip over it,
fall, break their leg, and then die in an unrelated crash on the way to the
hospital because of a stray dog.  In this case F would sue A because the
basket had the GNOME logo on it.  Further they would sue me as the original
author of the code that was in the head of the infringer, which being
particularly evil code made the head roll more towards the right, about 3cm
to be exact, and that caused E to trip over it in the first place.  This is
because reading gdm2 code makes your head bulge up just a little bit on the
left side of your brain, and this is particularly dangerous during
beheadings.  So please I implore you, if you read gdm2 code, do not infringe
upon its copyright as I could get sued after your severed head injures
someone.

Thus obviously the head collection basket must be bolted down no matter who
you assign your copyrights to.  Though I suppose the FSF does not have the
same rights as the Queen of England in 1707 and thus likely cannot order a
beheading.  So in fact by that logic, if you transfer copyright of your
non-evil code (to avoid problems during any beheadings should they occur)
to FSF, then the chance of a beheading happening is lessened substantially
and F will not sue A (you).

I hope this clears things up.

-- 
George <jirka 5z com>
   If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
                       -- Albert Einstein